


Lights and Life

by ShadowoftheLamp



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Burns, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 07:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17844626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowoftheLamp/pseuds/ShadowoftheLamp
Summary: Silver darts away from a bonfire, and Sonic decides to go ask if anything's wrong. He learns more than he bargained for.





	Lights and Life

Sonic wondered sometimes if he’d ever figure Silver out.

Sure, most of the time he was cheery and happy, but it was hard to miss the paranoid way he flinched around corners or at lit matches. The way he laughed too loud at jokes that weren’t very funny, or tried to get others to read for him without making it obvious what he was doing. He jumped at the chance to be with others, but shrunk away when he had to interact with them.

When Sonic had invited him over to a small group party in his backyard, Silver had smiled and agreed, but the second someone started a bonfire he was gone.

Sonic followed him. Following someone who could fly wasn’t easy, but Silver was weaving and dipping, almost like he was intoxicated. Even if he hadn’t had super speed, Sonic wouldn’t have had too hard of a time keeping his trail.

He ended up on the roof of one of Eggman’s old hideouts. It was still about half-intact, but a sense of foreboding struck the place. Especially since the sun was down and the moon was waning.

Silver was pacing in midair, and Sonic eased the trapdoor open, wincing at the creak.

“I know you’re there.” Silver said without looking. “Sonic, you’re probably the least stealthy person on the planet.”

“Am not!”

“Well, to me, you’re like a big target.” He sighed. “You’re going to chew me out about being a baby, huh?” Sonic blinked, pulling himself up onto the roof and standing next to Silver, who’d stopped in midair.

“Nah, I just… just wanted to see if you’re okay. You bolted out of there before anyone got a chance to ask what was wrong.” Silver’s shoulder’s sagged.

“Oh.” Sonic reached up to pat Silver’s shoulder reassuringly, but Silver darted back, instantly grabbing the place Sonic nearly touched and practically hissed.

“Don’t!” Sonic took a step back, holding up his hands in surrender.

“Okay, I won’t touch you. Sorry.” Silver’s eyes dropped to the crumbling metal of the roof beneath them, reaching his other arm up to his opposite shoulder and hugging himself.

“No, it’s just… don’t do that without telling me.” He made no move to step forward, so Sonic did to try and close the gap between them.

“Silver…” Silver sighed, before closing his eyes. His glow intensified, pulsing like a heartbeat until Sonic had to shut his eyes.

“Yah!” Sonic opened his eyes just in time to see Silver fling a teal energy burst away from his body, decimating the remains of a battlebot below them. From the similar piles of metal surrounding the bot, Sonic suddenly realized Silver came here often. He waited a moment to speak, and kept his voice quiet. Still, it carried through the windless night to the younger hedgehog, whose ears were flat against his head.

“Silver… are you all right?” Silver dropped to the roof, glow disappearing.

“…Yeah.” He muttered, with no conviction. Sonic moved forward before sitting next to him.

“Need to talk about it?”

“Not really.” They sat like that for a few minutes, just watching the lights of the city. They were further out than Sonic thought- the lights looked like dancing fireflies, flickering on and off. There was someone behind each of those lights, he realized- a girl writing in a diary, a boy watching a movie, a child playing with their limitless imagination.

“It’s probably overwhelming for you, huh?” Sonic said quietly. Silver didn’t turn to look at him, but nodded.

“It… there wasn’t really night and day. The ashes blocked the sun, so the only light was from the flames and the lava below.” Silver curled his hands around his knees and pulled in, curling up as small as he could. “I… it happened just before. I was born just after Iblis rose, and they were still trying to appease It, before they knew It was purely malevolent.”

Silver had always kept quiet about his future, or rather his past, and Sonic’s ears twitched at the sudden change of heart. Once he started, Silver’s words spilled over each other, as if they’d been locked up and were straining to get free.

“There were sacrifices. Tests. There were finite supplies, and if you weren’t useful you were gone.” His fingers tightened, and he blinked slowly. “I was lucky my powers developed early. I escaped the Others and somehow survived long enough to learn how to defend, how to fight It off. I… not everyone was as lucky as I was.”

Sonic resisted the urge to pull the boy into a hug. He opened his mouth to ask if Silver was all right again, if there was anything he could do, but something else came out instead.

“How old are you?” Silver blinked, turning to Sonic.

“I'unno.”

“What do you mean?” Silver shrugged.

“I… don’t know. It wasn’t important, and dates and times and all that just sort of… melted away before I was even born. There was then, and there was now. I’m… somewhere between 13 and 15 I think, if the people around here are any indication.”

“Oh.” Sonic didn’t have anything to say to that. Silver had sort of floated on the edge of his vision since he’d showed up months ago. This was a kid who didn’t even know how old he was, who had nothing but a head full of memories about a hell that no longer existed. A foe turned friend, but he hadn’t cared to ask if he was all right. Had anyone else?

Did Silver even have a place to stay?

“Do you… do you want to know why I didn’t want you to touch my shoulder?” Silver’s words broke Sonic out of his brief reverie.

“I guess.” He smiled weakly, as Silver scooted a little closer, holding out his arm. Sonic gently reached for it, and when he touched fur, his eyes widened at the rough texture he could feel even under gloved fingers. Silver started to speak.

“It’s…”

“Burns.” Sonic finished, pulling his eyes up to meet Silver’s. “How many…?” Silver tried to force a smile.

“Pretty much all over. They’re kinda like battle scars I guess.”

“Will they ever heal?”

“Iblis flame doesn’t heal.” Silver scooted back again, patting down his fur so it looked normal again, concealed the scars underneath. “The fur grows back, but the burns stay.” He took a deep breath. “Reminded me not to ever let my guard drop.”

Sonic was speechless. He’d fought battles before. Plenty of them, and hadn’t always come out unscathed. He had his share of scars.

But he was in a childish game of cat and mouse. At the end of the day, everyone went home alive. Or… even roboticized, with a chance of survival, of rescue.

Sonic wondered how a kid without even a prayer of hope, a breath of joy, had survived with his sanity intact.

He wondered how someone could survive hell and not utterly loathe the world for ripping anything resembling decency from them.

They sat together on the roof until nearly every light, every life, in the city quietly flickered off.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written 5 years ago, but I remembered it the other day and liked it enough to want to share it over here. Comments welcome!


End file.
